


Monster at the foot of your bed

by Blueyedgurl



Series: Monster fic [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, F/M, I Made Myself Cry, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mothlo, No pregnancy mentioned, Reylo babies, inspired by monsters inc, pixar level of emotion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25221046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueyedgurl/pseuds/Blueyedgurl
Summary: Twitter prompt:  Monster's inc AU where Ben is the monster in Rey's room at night after night but he sees how Plutt neglects her so he spends his scaring time reading to her and bringing her food and cheering her up.Rated teen and up for the child abuse/neglect themes.
Relationships: Kylo Ren & Rey, Rey/Ben Solo
Series: Monster fic [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837096
Comments: 26
Kudos: 125





	Monster at the foot of your bed

**Author's Note:**

> Why a monster fic was this emotional I'll never know.
> 
> This is not a monster romance, so I'll let you know that now.

Kylo had been working at Scaretastic Power Supply since he graduated from college. It was really the best job for him. He was tall, slender, and still able to crouch into small spaces. He had wings that wrapped around him like a cape, red eyes that glowed in the dark, and a couple of fuzzy antennae. He had the ability to camouflage but he found that to be really draining and preferred to keep himself in dark colors. 

He was still young, he was only 150 after all and in the prime of life. His mother kept harping on him to settle down and have lil monsters of his own, but he was really dedicated to his job. It was important to him to reach his weekly quotas, and even surpass them. He really enjoyed showing up his coworker Hux, that man was insufferable. Unlike his coworkers Kylo wasn’t actually afraid of the children they scared.

Not that his job didn’t come without risks, one time he actually got trapped in the human world and he was seen by enough teenagers that there was a smattering of Mothman sightings, it was embarrassing. The company had refused to send him back to West Virginia, why he was still allowed in regular Virginia was still a puzzle to him. He also had to write a letter of apology to Mothman himself, how humiliating.

One part of his job that seemed to challenge him was that not all of the kids were scared of him. Initially in his career he struggled a bit with these cases, at least until he could figure out how best to get their attention. It was how he stopped being scared of the little creatures, he had gone to specialists and learned more about the little humans. One thing he observed is that the ones who weren’t scared often had home lives that were already nightmarish. This tended to make him angry and he learned not to be scared of something so small and helpless.

For these cases he would just be friendly, making soft chirping noises and curling up at the foot of their tiny beds until they fell back asleep. Often, he heard parents use the word imaginary friend. Kind of like when the parents checked under the bed or in the closet for him, they would tell the kids it was only their imagination…. Whatever that meant. He noted that the parents could never see him, which he found odd. Even when he stopped using his camouflage, he figured they’d be able to see him if he stopped blending in with the closet. They would come in, sometimes look right at him, toss the kids unceremoniously into their beds and make a hasty exit. 

That lack of care made Kylo sad, even as a lil monster his mom had read him stories, usually about famous monsters and checked under his bed for humans. The stories often featured Mothman, Nessy in Lochness, and Bigfoot. Bigfoot was actually a rather popular series among lil monsters focusing on the dangers of humans. Bigs would visit his cousins around earth, like Skunky and Yeti they really were quite fun, educational even.

Since then, he always had this strange fascination with humans, that’s how he ended up in his career. It was really the only way he could work closely with humans that didn’t involve the illicit capture or keeping of them. Some monsters had them as pets and it just didn’t sit right with him.

Lately, Kylo hadn’t had much of the unusual children on his caseload. Until he ended up in some tiny dessert shack. He had to hunch down in order to fit in the tiny room. Looking around there was a small mattress on the floor, a small pile of clothes folded next to it, and a small rag doll was clutched in the little girl’s arms. He was used to seeing all kind of homes, but this place struck him as odd. It was a sad house. Kylo didn’t try to wake the girl, something felt different about her. He had no desire to even try to scare her, he knew it would be a waste of time. So, he crouched on the floor and pulled the girl’s blanket up over her shoulder. She seemed to hum in her sleep and Kylo decided he would come back another night.

This was part of his evening routine for a couple weeks, walk into the girl’s room, adjust her blankets and go about the rest of his workday.

Until one night, he walked in and the girl was crying and curled in on herself. So, he sat at the foot of her bed and waited for her to notice him, his eyes giving a red glow to the dark space.

She turned and looked at him.

“You’re here.”

He chirped and tilted his head. He could speak human language, but it was strictly forbidden.

“He said I’m not allowed to eat today, that I didn’t clean the engine parts good. But I did the best I could. What do they call you?”

Kylo chirped again.

“Can I call you Ben? I’ll call you Ben.”

Many of his sad children named him. It was always different, but this one felt like it was important to her.

“I can call you Ben, can’t I? My uncle’s name was Ben, but then he got sick and couldn’t care for me anymore. I miss him.” Ben gave a low chirp in return and nudged her knee with his shoulder as he collapsed in on himself. She scratched his head and laid back down. Kylo stayed a bit longer, until she fell asleep.

After that night his pattern changed, He learned her name was Rey. In an attempt to help her stay fed, he’d visit one of his big scare houses first, take a few snacks that were either laying about the bedrooms or in the boxy room that tended to contain food for the whole house. It took him a while to learn what Rey would eat, Kylo thought the red flesh looked delicious but she would just turn her nose up and say eating it like that would make her sick. After that he stuck to bags of chips and cookies, or pieces of what she told him was fruit. To his great disappointment she would not eat the fish with the head still attached either. One time he brought her a whole entire birthday cake and she was so pleased because she hadn’t had one since she stayed with her uncle Ben.

It went like this for a while. Sometimes she’d be awake, others not. One time she said she had a bad dream and Kylo picked up a well-worn book and sat next to her and read. She looked at him in awe until he finished reading. 

“You mean you could have spoken this whole time?”

“Of course, it’s against the rules though.”

She nodded in understanding.

“What’s your real name then?” She asked, looking almost hopeful.

“Kylo.”

Kylo broke the rules about every other time he visited after that. 

Rey kept growing and he was pleased that she was getting enough to eat with his help. But he knew his time with her would soon come to an end, she would stop believing soon.

One night he came in to find her curled in on herself and very obviously frightened. They both startled when the doorknob rattled. That had never happened before.

He chirped quietly and she ignored him, the man Plutt was now pounding on the door and screaming. Rey stayed staring at the door so he laid next to her and did the only thing he felt he could do, he wrapped her up in his wings and camouflaged himself to blend in with her bed. The man had pounded his way into the room, and he felt Rey turn and tuck herself against him, shaking in fear. Kylo hissed and bared his teeth, but it did no good, the man couldn’t see him. More importantly he couldn’t see _his_ Rey.

The man blinked stupidly, looking around the room and stumbling around before falling drunk on his face in the hall.

“You can’t stay here.” Kylo said decisively when they both felt the danger had passed. 

“But how will you find me?” She asked sadly. He was touched, but he wasn’t of her world and it would be cruel to bring her to his.

“I’ll always find you, Rey. I know a place I can take you.” There had been one house that always had different from the rest. It always had older children that weren’t afraid of him. The lady seemed kind, there was food and good bedding. The kids for the most part seemed to sleep well. He would take her there. 

As Rey packed her meager belongings, Kylo stalked out into the hall and bit the man. Kylo’s venom was powerful and would make the man look like he had a heart attack, no one would be the wiser and the man wouldn’t be able to hurt Rey ever again.

Kylo wrapped Rey in his wings and used his transport device to take her to the home with the kind lady. He left Rey sitting in their kitchen just as the dawn light rose over the horizon. He touched her cheek fondly and said that he would come back. He knew he would always return to her.

When he came back, she was asleep in her own room, she looked clean and content and he tucked her in, just like he used to.

He only visited a few times after that, as she was often with her new brother Finn. They would be up talking, giggling and listening to music. Kylo was happy for her. 

He kept, working with other children after that. Scaring some and comforting others, but he often thought back to little Rey and hoped that she was still safe and happy. He knew she was an adult now, and wouldn’t be able to see him, he tried not to think about it too much.

A few years later he came to a little house and a little room. Something about it seemed to tug at him. here was a small little boy with hair as dark as him in the bed, it had a stack of books on the nightstand, including one ratty one that looked particularly familiar to him. There was also a rag doll on the shelf above the bed. He looked around taking it all in when he saw a hand drawn picture of himself. It startled him a moment. Did his antennae really look like that? He raised his hand to feel them. 

When he turned back to the bed the little boy was sat up.

“You finally came!”

Kylo tilted his head and chirped.

“My mommy said you would come someday. She said you might not be able to read me a story, that it was against the rules, but this is the one you would read to her. My name is Kylo, too.” The boy proffered his and Kylo took it in his own. Big Kylo then picked up the book and flipped through the well-worn and familiar pages.

That night he sat on the bed and read to the little boy, who was asleep by page 6. When it was time to leave, he brushed his hair out of his eyes, tucked him in and went about the rest of his night. His visits with Rey’s child continued.

He later learned that Rey’s husband was named Ben and he smiled at the memory of her naming him. Out of curiosity Kylo had peeked in on them once. Ben was a big man with dark hair like little Kylo’s he was kind to Rey and their son, one time catching him tuck Rey into bed. Kylo chirped pleased to himself, somehow the man heard him and spun around, but couldn’t see him. The man would protect them, that night Kylo slept better than he had in a long time.

On one visit, Rey had walked in on one of their reading sessions to kiss little Kylo good night and tuck him in. She looked at the foot of the bed fondly, but he knew she couldn’t see him, not really. He cooed, a bit forlornly but finished story time with little Kylo, he took the rest of the night off.

Kylo loved Rey and her family so much that he would read to all of her children. There was Rian and Mazy, they were twins, sweet, wild things that would crawl on him while he read to them. It was fine until they used his antenna to try to get on top of his shoulders, that hurt.

He stayed with the family through the years and would read to her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, too. He worked way past his retirement just to work with her children and he didn’t know how to explain it, they just made him feel warm and he would chirp happily when he thought about them.

In fact, Rey’s family made him so happy that he started his own business. He called it Imaginary Incorporated and the monsters there were hand picked to go read and comfort children who were unhappy, help rehome them if they were unsafe. It formed its own energy that was cleaner and more efficient, and his employees seemed to enjoy their work immensely.

He called the units of Energy, Rey of Light, and nobody got the joke but him. He was fine with that. When he was too old and frail to go read to Rey’s Great-great-great grandchildren he hand-picked someone to look over them. Their name was Chewie, honestly the man would make a good Big Foot impersonator, he introduced them, and the children clung to Chewie just as readily as they had clung to Kylo. 

Kylo chirped contentedly that night as he laid in his bed and thought of the girl he missed and her family, whom he loved. That night he dreamed of little Rey in her smallest form. “You came back.”


End file.
